Pinkie (re)Curses A Lot

by scifipony

Crisis: Tense Tense and Self-Limits

I thought about where Rarity might have influenced me. Sure, she had caught me muttering to Gummy about him taking a pacifier from a baby again, and had asked me what I had said about babies, but that had been a girly moment, not serious. The next time we were discussing secrets was after Twilight had told us as a group about Cadance and Shining Armor's visit, but made it clear to me that she had not been told the top top secret. We were in the room Twilight had decorated for the royal couple. I was in the toy box, having sat on a doll. I had picked it up and asked about it.

Twilight smiled. "This is Brutus Force. Mom said Shining Armor used to carry him around like his baby!"

Cadence, I thought. Baby. "Yeah!" I began chuckling weakly, working hard to hold in what I was bursting to say. "R—Really cute!"

I was about to explode into pink bits; shudders rattled through me, making it hard to hear what the others said. I even agreed with an "uh-huh" when everypony else agreed to something I hadn't heard.

I couldn't focus until Rainbow Dash said, "Watching somepony else be surprised with something is almost better than being the one who's getting the surprise!"

Oh, I could remember suddenly that the opposite was a real bummer.

I really needed advice.

I began to crawl out of the toy box, slink over, and slide on my back across the floor, saying, "What if the surprise is something so incredibly exciting that a pony can't keep it in any longer, and she has to tell the pony standing next to her what it is or she might explode?" I had slid up to Fluttershy, and held her, hoping for permission to say anything to alleviate the hot tea kettle pressure bubbling inside me.

She said, "I would say, 'no.'"

Rarity straightened and a dark, serious expression drifted theatrically over her face. As she crept closer to me, she said, her voice lowering ominously, "The pony who ruins a surprise for somepony else has to live with that guilt forever!"

I gasped. It was another type of Pinkie Promise, without the swearing part! Even if by chance you learned a secret, the forever clause bound you—me. I remembered telling uncounted ponies that they could lose their friends forever were they to break a promise.

And suddenly I realized how I had terrorized those who wavered, because I too was now terrorized.

And, I had wavered. I now knew how my victims felt. Either you kept secrets or you avoided them, but you had to do the right thing. But ponies needed to make their decision, as did I, at this moment, right now.

I hoped this was the right thing because I knew at that moment that nobody but me and the Cakes knew the secret. Not even Time Turner—because he wasn't here. I was back at the very beginning.

I had another chance. My nervous-excitement hit a fever pitch and I began bouncing around the room.

And I broke a wall. Sorry!

But I had to get away from my friends for awhile. And I would have a lot to do. Deliveries. Balloons. And I would apologize to Twilight after I could explain what had happened, which of course she would say was scientifically not possible, just as Time Turner—Doc—had.

As it was, I barely survived the day. I managed to hold it in until I was back in the castle in the early afternoon. Despite Twilight's protests to the contrary, I knew Cadance and Shining would arrive and they did just in time as I began to fail.

Trusty Shining interrupted my blathering shame and changed what I had been saying before I got to the baby part.

Crisis averted.